Videos

I flew into Wales a couple days early to get used to the time zones, and showed up at the conference center where SQLBits would be located. Let’s go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento on a very chilly morning: Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 01:02 Jersey: Has Microsoft fixed any of the bugs…

When you’ve got questions about architecture, development, or best practices, post ’em at https://pollgab.com/room/brento, and upvote the ones you’d like to see me cover. It’s like free bite-sized consulting. Here’s what we covered this week: 00:00 Start 01:37 DBAInAction: Hi Brent, could you please suggest an archival/purging strategy for multi-TB tables to free up disk…

Let’s go through a LOT of your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento on a VERY early Saturday morning. 00:00 Start 01:52 DBAInAction: Hi Brent Microsoft just announced Automatic Index Compaction for Azure SQL and Fabric. do you see this finally killing off the traditional ‘index maintenance’ debate? Also, any gut feeling on whether this will eventually…

Well, maybe mountain is a bit of a strong word, but it’s one of the highest elevation home sites in Las Vegas, with beautiful views over the valley, the Strip, the airport, and the surrounding mountains. Let’s go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento while taking in the view – and you can move the camera…

I’m up in North Bay, Ontario, Canada for the 2026 Can-Am Curling Cup run by Aaron Bertrand – and my team actually won! Hanging out with Andy Mallon, Aaron Bertrand, Leanne Swart, Michael J Swart, and Ken Mallon before the tournament The winning team, woohoo! Let’s bask in the warmth (cough) of our glory as…

My tripod is probably never gonna recover from the salt water, but the water was so nice that I couldn’t resist. This is a 360 video, so you can grab the screen and move it around to see Magens Bay in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, as I go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento.…

Yes, I’m back on a cruise ship with another 360 degree video. Lest you think I’m being wildly irresponsible (or responsible perhaps?) with your consulting and training money, be aware that this particular cruise was free thanks to the fine folks in the casino department at Norwegian Cruise Lines. In between beaches and blackjack, let’s…

Let’s hang out in my home office in Vegas and go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. The audio’s a little echo-y in this one because I just moved my office down to a small first floor guest bedroom with hardwood floors instead of carpet, and I haven’t treated the room for noise yet. Here’s…

Want to ask your own questions or pick the ones I discuss? Head over to https://pollgab.com/room/brento to get involved. In the meantime, let’s hang out in the backyard, where Beni makes a special guest appearance. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 00:57 Old and Tired DBA: Should I convert all of my parameters to local…

It’s an overcast afternoon at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas, so since I can’t go into the water, might as well go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 00:48 jrl: What makes a good Office Hours question? 01:22 Nils: Do you have any experience with Babelfish or similar…

On the world’s largest floating electronic dance music festival, I took your top-voted database questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 01:54 Frost: What is your opinion on Group Managed Service Accounts? 04:09 Elwood: What AI tool or skills do you recommend learning for DBAs to stay relevant? 07:59 GSurgeon: What are the…

While in the midst of moving my home office into a new room in the house, I stopped to take your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. About 18.5 minutes into the recording, my camera overheated because I hadn’t set up the fan on it yet, hahaha. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 02:28 Born to be…

When I travel, I try to take y’all with me to really pretty or at least interesting locations. On my Tokyo visit last year, I did Office Hours in Akihabara, the electronics & anime shopping hub. Even though I’m not into anime at all and I don’t collect that kind of gear, I wanted to…

Kyoto feels like a timeless, classic version of historical Japan with quiet tree-lined streets, giant temples, and bubbling brooks. It’s the exact opposite of last week’s experience in noisy Osaka! Last year, I filmed in Kyoto outside a temple, and this year, I’m at another temple just after New Year’s, the time when Japanese folks…

The Dotonbori area of Osaka is like a video game version of Japan: wild, over-the-top neon signs, awesome street food, cool street markets, Kabuki theater on a revolving stage, and more. It’s very touristy, but as touristy places go, it’s fantastic. Last year when I was here, I filmed Office Hours at the river, but…

I really wanted to film Office Hours on the Great Wall of China, but the instant I got out there, I realized it was a lost cause. That place was SO overwhelming – tons of people, frigid winds, heights, totally overwhelming in every way. So, instead you get a nice peaceful park in downtown Zhengzhou,…

I drove the Graffiti Gulf out to The Last Spike (video) outside of Las Vegas and took your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 01:45 Jan de Graaf: Our database landscape seems CPU-bound. We sometimes hit 100% CPU with organic load. We’re considering new hardware. Do you think memory speed plays…

I threw in the towel on my workday at 3PM when everything started going wrong in the Ozar home office, so I switched to answering your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 03:59 MyTeaGotCold: How often do you see indexed views these days? 04:14 I 3Fedora: Hi Brent, Not strictly database…

It’s the perfect time of year in Las Vegas when we can chill outside by the fire, enjoy a glass of wine, and go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 00:54 iliyan Rashev: Hello Brent, I am on SQL Server 2019 RTM Please recommend a patching path: 1. Apply…

My cruise ship took a detour to Honduras to avoid the hurricane. Let’s hang out on the beach and go through your top-voted questions from https://pollgab.com/room/brento. Here’s what we covered: 00:00 Start 00:58 Dopinder: What is your opinion of the Github copilot support in SSMS 22? Is this more beneficial for the DBA or Data…